As the Champions Trophy rolls towards us like the wooden wheel that we made each week in Craft, Design and Technology at school (having always lost the previous week’s wheel at some point in the interim) it seems a decent enough time to pay a visit to the subject of cricket apps on smartphones.

We’ve always maintained our distance from these things up until now, generally having found them to offer much the same information as the internet only in a much less accessible form. However, we’re giving the ICC one a go at the minute and at first glance it seems okay. It’s not too massive and the scorecards feature a little more information than we see on the BBC site.

But what do we know? Nothing, give or take. Do you use a non-rubbish cricket app? What do you get out of it? Leave a comment on the site and let’s see if a consensus magically emerges.

I just look at BBC Cricket Live Scores. If Apps had some form of incentive then I might be interested. Perhaps signing in to an App could record hours spent faffing about and then after a 100 hours you’d get a letter from the Queen congratulating you on reaching a century.

This is exactly where we are, but the omission of ‘balls faced’ – perhaps because our phone screen is merely large, not gargantuan – is really starting to niggle us, particularly with a one-day competition looming.

I had the cricinfo app for a while because the website kept badgering me about it, but then found myself continually going back to the website when I couldn’t find something on the app so I got rid of it. So overall no cricket apps for me.

In addition, I would use the King Cricket app if it existed, but it does not.

I would especially like a cricket top trumps app, but that does not exist either. In fact, even the web version of that wonderful game seems to be in the doldrums of late. Perhaps KC will find time, between nappy changes, to give that magnificent aspect of his site some care and attention right now. We can but hope.

I use CricBuzz which works if you can ignore the huge indian influence.
The live scorecard in “lean back” mode is fantastic if you happen to be following cricket when you should be working. Also in lean back mode you feel like Chris Gayle.

I just use the BBC cricket web page. I have used Cricbuzz but not in a while. It was a pain finding the games I was interested in (county and/or England tests) while ‘on the move’, which took multiple page reloads. I tend to go to remote places with bugger all internets so would usually make do without, and just catch up when I get back to my desk.

I use the Cricinfo app. As all I need it for is checking scores when I’m out and about (by which I mean during drinks break while playing) and for my wife to read to scores to me when it’s my turn to drive and she’s vetoed TMS or Guerilla Cricket.

[I] found myself continually going back to the website when I couldn’t find something on the app…

We find the Cricinfo website basically unusable on the phone.

This is the purpose / problem with all website mirroring apps. They exist as a filter to simplify the main website so that it can actually be used on a phone, but in doing so are only useful to you if the filtering matches the stuff you wanted from the website anyway. The Cricinfo app has been getting better at this recently. It was never practical to check on past matches or stats via the app, but they seem to have pretty much sorted that out for most things. Scorecards, commentary, articles, player profiles and statistics – all these are easily obtained now via the app.

What isn’t accessible is the Statsguru feature, the option to filter the statistics to provide the precise piece of evidence you need to win an argument. Of left-handed English batsmen born before 1970, the third highest second innings test batting average against New Zealand in New Zealand belongs to David Gower. This proves two things, firstly whatever point it is I was making, and secondly that you are a total loser with no knowledge of cricket and no friends.

So while the app is good, it isn’t perfect. It needs the Statsguru feature simplifying and including. In fact, what it really needs is the option to just tell your phone the nature of your argument and have it provide the perfect statistical support for whichever side you happen to be on.